Guidebook for Instructors
Written and designed by Netanel Barak, licensed tour guide and trip educator
Written during the War of Roaring Lion

Safari Right Under Your Nose

A Nature Tour in Gan HaBanim

An experiential journey in the neighborhood park that teaches how to transform a familiar place into a world of wonder, inquiry, nature, stories, and s’mores.

🌿 Nature

🔎 Inquiry

🎭 Play

🔥 S’mores

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🌍

The Tour Concept – Discovering the Nature Right Under Your Nose

In times when it is not always possible to travel far from home, the nearby environment invites us to look again.

Almost all the children and families already know the public garden near their home very well. They have played there dozens of times, passed through it on the way to school, and perhaps sat there with friends. Precisely because of that, this becomes a special educational opportunity: to see a familiar place with new eyes.

When we stop by a tree, touch its leaves, examine what grows beneath it, ask questions, and hear its story, that familiar garden suddenly becomes a space of wonder, curiosity, and discovery.

Guiding principle for the instructor: Do not rush to explain everything. Let the familiar place become surprising again. The key is to help children discover, not just listen.

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🗺️

The Structure of the Tour – A Quest Journey

The tour is built like a quest journey. At each station, the children discover something new in nature, complete a small task, and receive part of the “treasure of the journey.”

Station 1 — Ceremony of entrance into the Kingdom of Nature + marshmallow

Station 2 — The carob tree and nature’s chocolate

Station 3 — The olive tree, light, and matches

Station 4 — Judas tree and biscuits

Station 5 — Pines, fire, and skewers

Station 6 — Final campfire and making s’mores

1Discover something new

2Complete a task

3Receive an item

4Put it all together at the end

Journey Treasure

🍡 Marshmallow

🍫 Chocolate / carob spread

🍪 Biscuits

🔥 Matches

🍢 Skewers

The climax of the quest is the moment when the children realize that everything they collected at the stations becomes one complete thing: s’mores together.

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🎯

Tour Goals

Encourage observation and inquiry in nearby nature
Introduce common trees and plants in the urban environment
Create connections between nature, culture, and tradition
Create a shared experience of discovery, play, and learning
End with a memorable hands-on climax activity

Target Audience

Children in kindergarten through elementary school and their parents

Tour Length

About 60 minutes

🎒

Required Materials

Robes and crowns for the Nature King and Nature Queen
“S’mores Treasure” bag
Marshmallows
Carob spread or chocolate
Biscuits
Wooden skewers
Matchbox
Gold ring with a K marking
Small oil lamp
Olive oil
Bags for gathering pine needles and twigs
Empty grills

Some materials can be adapted according to what is available — but it is important to preserve the idea of “treasure collected along the way.”

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⚠️

Safety and Preparation

The tour takes place close to the participants’ homes.
In case of an early warning siren, each family returns to the safe room nearest to their home.
Every child must come with an adult or an older sibling who knows where to go back.
Road crossing is done only as one organized group and under the instructor’s direction.
Fire is lit only in an area where it is permitted and only inside empty grills.
The instructor is responsible for the lighting stage, for maintaining a safe distance from the fire, and for complete extinguishing at the end.
No running near the fire, and no throwing objects that are not intended for the grill into the fire.

Before the Tour

Check the weather, the permitted fire area, and the station locations.

During the Tour

Keep the group together, maintain an appropriate pace, and use calm and clear language.

At the End

Fully extinguish the fire, collect trash, and make sure the site is left clean and safe.

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🧭

Map of Tour Stations

1. Trumpet Bush 🌺

Coronation ceremony, nectar, marshmallow

2. Carob Tree 🌳

Pod inquiry, carat, chocolate

3. Olive Tree 🫒

National tree, oil, matches

4. Judas Tree 🌸

Heart-shaped leaves, crown of the forest, biscuits

5. Pines and Parakeets 🌲

Needles, gathering fire materials, skewers

6. Final Fire 🔥

Fire challenge, making s’mores

The map can be adapted to the actual garden: move stations, add a winding path, or attach a real aerial photo of the park and mark the stations on it.

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Station 1 – The Gate to the Kingdom of Nature

Trumpet Bush

Station Reward: Marshmallow

What do we do?

Choose the two youngest children.
Dress them in a robe and crown: the Nature King and Nature Queen.
Ask the group what is missing for a real coronation ceremony.
Guide them to the answer: trumpets.
Show the trumpet bush — its flowers look like little trumpets.
The boys line up beside the king, the girls beside the queen, and each child blows into a flower.

What do we learn?

The structure of the flower: open and closed flowers
Stamens and nectar
Nectar is a sweet liquid that attracts insects and sometimes birds

Educational Idea

A dramatic opening station helps children enter the world of the tour. It does not just “open” the program — it creates atmosphere, belonging, and curiosity.

At the end of the station, the marshmallow goes to the treasure keeper. From the very first moment, the children understand that they are on a journey with a goal.

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Station 2 – The Carob Tree

The carob, the carat, and nature’s chocolate

Station Reward: Carob Spread / Chocolate

What do we do?

Ask: how do we identify a carob tree?
The children suggest: by the pods on the ground.
Divide into small groups and send them to find another carob tree with or without pods underneath.
After about two minutes, bring everyone back.
Ask: who found pods? Who did not? Why is there a difference?

How do we reach the discovery?

Through questions, the children arrive at the conclusion that female carob trees bear fruit and male carob trees do not. You can reinforce it with: just as among humans, the mother is the one who brings children into the world.

The Carat Activity

Show a ring marked 14K.
Ask a child to identify the number and the letter.
Explain: K = carat.
Open a carob pod and take out a seed.
Each child holds a “carat” in their hand.

You can also include traditional stories: Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the cave, Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa, and the idea that the carob is “nature’s chocolate.”

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Station 3 – The Olive Tree and Light

A transition through the riddle of the national tree

Station Reward: Matchbox

The Transition

Ask: what is the national tree of Israel? When someone answers “olive,” say: “Then let’s meet by the olive tree.”

What do we do by the tree?

Ask: how do we identify an olive tree?
Show silvery-green leaves, buds, and a twisted trunk.
Let the children touch the trunk.
Present a small oil lamp.

Oil Lamp

You can use a lamp made of chalkstone (a soft rock) or an antique lamp. If the instructor made it personally, that creates a touching and meaningful moment.

What do we learn?

Olive oil was used in the past for:

Light
Food
Medicine
Soap

Here you can also connect the olive tree to the emblem of the State of Israel and the menorah, if appropriate for the age group.

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Station 4 – The Judas Tree

The crown of the forest

Station Reward: Biscuits

What do we do?

Ask what is special about the leaves.
The children discover that they are heart-shaped.
Show how the leaves and blossoms grow directly from the trunk and branches.

Illustration for Children

Compare the phenomenon to cookies or biscuits growing out of the wall — an image that helps them grasp how surprising and special it is.

Meaning of the Name

The Hebrew word kelil also means crown. You may quote: “A crown of glory You placed upon his head.” Therefore, this tree is like the crown of the forest.

This station combines nature, language, imagination, and tradition — which makes it gentle but very powerful.

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Station 5 – Pines and Parakeets

Needles, branches, and a home for birds

Station Reward: Wooden Skewers

What do we do?

Ask what tree this is.
Show the pine needles and explain why they are called that.
Explain that the needles help conserve water.
Show the layer of needles on the ground and how it makes it harder for other plants to grow.

The Parakeets

Talk about the parakeets nesting in the pines, and how both the pine tree and the parakeet are not native species, unlike the olive, carob, and Judas tree.

Gathering Task

The children receive bags and gather:

Pine needles
Small twigs
Medium twigs

These materials will be used to light the fire at the final station.

They also receive wooden skewers — tall, thin, and pointed like the pine and its needles — and these join the treasure as well.

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Station 6 – Finale: The S’mores Fire

A fire challenge, sharing, and an experiential climax

Journey Climax: S’mores

How do we begin?

Cross carefully to the area where it is permitted to light fires.
Divide into boys and girls, or simply into two teams.
Give each team 5 minutes to arrange needles and twigs inside an empty grill.

The Challenge

The goal is to light a fire using as few matches as possible. The activity is done under full instructor supervision and with careful attention to safety.

Making the S’mores

Two biscuits
Chocolate or carob spread
A toasted marshmallow on a skewer

The hot marshmallow slightly melts the chocolate, and everything collected along the journey becomes one delicious, shared result.

Recommended closing question: What did you discover today in the park that you had never noticed before?

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